Our favourite superheroes might be sending the wrong message

They are a staple of children’s Saturday mornings, but are superhero cartoons giving kids an accurate view of crime and justice?

A just-published study out of the United States says several popular animated series present some pretty skewed messages: law enforcement is inept or corrupt, punishment is better than rehabilitation, and vigilante justice is OK when carried out by heroes with “moral authority.”

“I don’t think, as a whole, they’re teaching us something bad,” study author Lisa Kort-Butler, a sociology professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in an interview Tuesday. “(But) there is this kind of skew in terms of what we, as media consumers, see versus what’s really going on with crime and justice.”

Kort-Butler, who published her findings recently in the journal Criminal Justice Review, analyzed 47 episodes from three programs – Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998) and Justice League of America/Justice League Unlimited (2001-2006).

One of the clear themes that emerged was that law enforcement and the justice system were ineffective in going after the worst criminals, Kort-Butler wrote.

For instance, police and the military unleashed massive firepower at the evildoers, their vehicles or hideouts “to little avail.”

Even when the villains were captured, there always seemed to be a way out, such as when Lex Luthor said, “I’ll get the best lawyers, the best witnesses.”

Sometimes, the villains were released from custody on “technicalities,” frustrating the heroes, the study found.

“I don’t understand why they can’t keep a creep like him in jail,” Spider-Man grumbled in one episode about his nemesis, Dr. Octopus.

At times, police agents were shown to be susceptible to corruption, the study found, such as Deputy Commissioner Gil Mason in Batman, “whose desire for power and status is funded by organized crime and an association with Two-Face.”

Viewers were constantly reminded that superheroes sit at the top of the “moral and social order,” and the catalyst for their vigilantism usually revolves around some kind of past injustice, such as the death of a loved one, Kort-Butler wrote.

While the shows often depicted superheroes using their brains to outwit the villains, they were also shown operating outside the law. They manipulated or manhandled people for information, for instance – conveying that you sometimes have to “play the criminals’ games to beat them,” the study found.

A sense of “just desserts” was often implied, such as when Wonder Woman grabbed a robber by the collar and threw him against a car, saying later, “those thugs got exactly what they had coming!”

But a strong sense of morality always stopped the superheroes from excessive violence, Kort-Butler wrote, such as when Martian Manhunter said in a Justice League episode, “sometimes it takes more strength not to fight.”

And captured villains were almost always turned over to the police – a show of respect for law enforcement, she said.

In all programs, incarceration was the preferred punishment and prisons were depicted as shadowy and forlorn. The cartoons tended to “cast doubt” on the possibility of rehabilitation, Kort-Butler wrote.

In one Justice League episode, for instance, Lex Luthor, was shown building homes and a playground for low-income families, but he was really plotting against the League.

“I had an expectation there would be a little more sense of rehabilitation and reform. … For the most part, rehabilitation is not an option,” Kort-Butler said in the interview.

“As a sociologist, I’m always wishing for broader perspectives.”

Kort-Butler said more research needs to be done to assess what sorts of messages children may be picking up. She said she is not suggesting parents banish children from watching superhero cartoons – she allows her own children to watch them – but it might be useful for parents to remind their kids of the “bigger picture.”

When driving by a prison near her home, for instance, Kort-Butler said she has reminded her kids that the people inside have made “bad mistakes” but all are not “supervillains” like Lex Luthor.

A just-published study out of the United States says several popular animated series present some pretty skewed messages: law enforcement is inept or corrupt, punishment is better than rehabilitation, and vigilante justice is OK when carried out by heroes with “moral authority.” Read the full story that will destroy childhood innocence here.